I’m getting older (66) and therefore more grumpy. Just recently I’ve started abandoning novels because I don’t like the characters. Is this reasonable, or even sensible?

#booksky I’ve just abandoned my second attempt at The Brothers Karamazov. Is there something wrong with me?

Can’t recommend Jeff Vande Zande’s new gothic horror Blood of the Witness Tree highly enough. A superb sequel to his equally brilliant The Dance of Rotten Sticks. Vande Zande writes his characters into the story with a sure hand reminiscent of John Steinbeck.